The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles you should be watching

Well it’s happened. We all were excited and frightened for its arrival. The Michael Bay produced Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie trailer hit last week and it was met with an almost universal hatred. For so many reasons the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles has hit so many nerves. For example, Shredder is not Asian, he is an American played by William Fichtner. The Foot Clan seems to be a group of gun-toting idiots instead of an elite ninja fighting force and to pour salt on an already gaping wound, April O’Neil is Megan Fox. Just let that sit with you, let it bubble then boil, then if you let out a guttural scream of anger don’t worry you’re just a fan of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. I will give the trailer one compliment, the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles look decent, granted they are nine feet tall but hey that’s kind of cool, right?

This was however a little rant,what I came here to talk about is the real Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for this generation. I am of course talking about the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon series currently on Nickelodeon. I stumbled upon this series a year back and I was blown away at the humour, the acting and the action. I will say the animation style at first can be quite jarring but I have grown to love it and at times I was asking myself, where the hell is everyone in New York? I know most of the episodes are set in the late hours of the night but this doesn’t really work in a city like New York. Apart from these problems the series is incredibly strong. Each turtle is unique, fun and engaging. They actually feel like teenagers for once which I really appreciated. Raphael is angry, as usual, but he is interesting. Leonardo is a naive child who learns his life lessons from a Star Trek parody. Donatello is fun and introverted and has a too obvious crush on April and Michaelangelo gives some of the best one liners, which include poking fun at the culture of cartoons back in the 80’s and 90’s. The leads are rounded off with a fantastic supporting cast which mainly consist of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles rogues gallery.

The Lads and their gal.

The greatest part of the series is the relationship between Splinter and Shredder. You are given a definite sense of history between these two characters and it is deep and fantastic. Then there is the most thankful element of all, Shredder actually feels like a genuine threat. When he first faces the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles he beats the living crap out of each and every one of them and there are actual ramifications of this fight felt through the relationship between the Turtles and Splinter.

You can actually tell which one is which, so cool.

There you have it everybody, don’t despair, just because Michael Bay may have ruined our chances on the big screen doesn’t mean the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are down for the count, with the second season going at full steam it is a great time to be a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles fan. Cowabunga dude!

Superman enthusiast, pop culture fan and film journalist. Creator of podcast Speakin' Geek and contributor to Scannain.com, iRadio and Spin 103.8. I love talking about anything and everything(except country music, I hate country music). My views are my own and I would love to discuss them with you.